Business loves metrics. Business leaders and investors rely on and have available to them numerous reports to help them understand the health and profitability of their industries. Now, for the first time ever, the arts sector has such a tool, too.

The ground-breaking National Arts Index uses 76 equal weighted, national-level indicators of arts activity to assess the health and vitality of the arts industries in the United States. The Index, which was produced by the Americans for the Arts, the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, covers an 11-year period, from 1998 to 2008.

Similar to reports such as The Conference Board's tracking of consumer confidence, the Index views the arts as a dynamic system and provides reliable longitudinal information.

t is unique when compared to other arts data systems in its scope, amount of data it presents, and annual publication. The Index is set to a base score of 100 in 2003. Every point difference represents one percent change.

Among the Index's key findings:

The National Arts Index fell 4.2 percentage points in 2008, reflecting losses in charitable giving and declining attendance at larger cultural institutions, even as the number of arts organizations grew.

The arts follow the nation's business cycle -- not surprising as the arts are composed of 100,000 non-profit arts organizations and 600,000 more arts businesses, along with 2.24 million artists in the workforce. All count on billions of dollars in consumer spending.

How the public participates in and consumes the arts is expanding. The arts participation measure is on the increase. Personal arts creation by the public is growing steadily (making art, playing music). Attendance at mainstream nonprofit arts organizations, however, is in decline.

The subsidy model is struggling. Arts and culture continues to lose their market share of philanthropy to other charitable areas -- a decline that began well before the current economic downturn.

Demand for arts in education is up. A growing percentage of college-bound high school seniors are getting four years of arts and music, even as other national studies point to a decline in arts education.

"As with key business measures like the Dow or the GDP, we now have a way to measure the health of the arts in America. The arts are a key industry in the U.S. economy, creating jobs, contributing to the vitality of our communities, uplifting the spirits of our nation, and helping to develop the creative and innovative workforce needed to remain globally competitive," said Albert Chao, president and CEO, Westlake Chemical, Houston, and a member of the Business Committee for the Arts.

The National Arts Index will be an important tool for stimulating national and local conversations about the value of the arts to individuals, communities, and the nation as a whole, according to Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute and one of the project's advisers.

The 2009 National Arts Index report, as well as one-pagers for all 76 indicators is available for download at www.AmericansForTheArts.org/go/ArtsIndex.

Tamara Real is the director of the Arts Alliance and a regular contributor to Ann Arbor Business Review.